Sucks to own a sidekick

Well, if you're a Sidekick owner (they exist?) on T-Mobile, I'm sure you've received your notice already of impending doom.  As of May 31st, Microsoft's Danger Services which powers the Sidekick, will be shut down. This effectively means the phone will basically brick, as those cloud services are needed for the phone to operate.  You Sidekick owners will remember last September when the services had a major outage and users lost their contact, pics, bookmarks, etc.  To my knowledge, at least almost everyone finally got their data recovered.

"After May 31, 2011, the Danger Service (a subsidiary of Microsoft) used by T-Mobile Sidekick customers for data services will no longer be available on Sidekick devices.

T-Mobile will provide offers for our Sidekick customers before May 31, 2011, to help make an easy transition from their existing Sidekick device to a new device. We will have more information to share about these offers with our customers in the weeks ahead.

To ensure the best possible transition for our loyal Sidekick customers, an enhanced Web tool is available on myT-Mobile.com to easily export their personal data, including contacts, photos, calendar, notes, to-do lists, and bookmarks, from the Danger service to a new device, computer, or a designated e-mail account.  An application is also available in the Sidekick Catalog to make it easy to export personal data to the Sidekick’s memory card.  Many T-Mobile stores can transfer data from that card to a new T-Mobile device if the customer brings in the memory card and Sidekick."

So what do the lonely owners get in exchange you ask?  Well, two options.  One, you can get out of the service with no ETF between March 31st to May 31st.  Or, you can get 50% off select Samsung devices if you decide to stick around with a new 2 year agreement (how considerate).

I tried to take a look at their Sidekick transition page here but it doesn't look to be live, as it goes to a standard login page.  Also, nothing on their main page.  Looks like we'll have to wait until March 31st to see the options.  Let's hope the 50% off isn't a ripoff as I assume that's off regular retail price.  Normally the full upgrade discount is more than 50%.  If it's not full upgrade price, a 1 year agreement would be a bit more fair to require as users are being forced out of their phones they signed an agreement to get.  Full discount would be fair to ask a 2 year agreement on.

If you're nice, you might even manage to talk your friendly T-Mobile rep into giving you a discount on a nice new Blackberry device!  Hint hint, nudge nudge.

Worst in Tech for 2010

Microsoft Kin

The Kin was once dubbed as the cousin to Windows Phone 7.  That might be true if that cousin is comatose.  Consumers who bought this device were blessed with no apps or games, a forced data plan by Verizon used for real smart phones, and quite possibly the worst UI ever invented.  Let's not forget all those cloud hosting issues they experienced randomly.  Lost contacts anyone?

The Kin was killed off after an impressive 6 weeks on the market.


AT&T 3G MicroCell

We all know that AT&T has the worst cellular network known to man.  It drops calls, data, runs slow, and has a natural ability to piss people off daily.  The MicroCell unit is their solution to fix all of this, at least in your home.  In theory it's great, except for the forced $150 price tag that goes along with it.

Here is a better idea long term.  Just fix your horrible network.


The TV Hat

Now this is the perfect gift, if your sole purpose if simply to piss someone off and make them hate you.  One thing we have learned since the inception of the iPod is that any random company will make some stupid accessory to try and cash in.  The TV Hat was designed to allow the user watch media on their iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPod Classic with no glare.  It even has a 2.5x magnification screen that "helps give you a movie theater experience".

We better all jump to get this as it's a steal at $30.  Just don't go outdoors with it, as you may have find new friends with the people that wear foil hats.


Shake Weight

I have nothing against integrating technology into our daily lives and routines, but I don't think any of us believe this thing was invented to get your average Joe into shape.  It may have been innocent, but the Shake Weight has quickly become the butt of sexual jokes of everyone.

And yes, I still laugh uncontrollably when I see the commercials.  And thank you YouTube for your wonderful parody videos.


USB 3.0

It came, it saw, and it fell harder than a fat man in a slide at the water park.  USB 3.0 was supposed to be the magnificent replacement to current standards, offering 10x the speed of 2.0 and giving us a world of new high speed peripherals.  Someone forgot to send this memo to Intel and AMD, as they never integrated this technology natively, and only a small amount of devices support it.


Google Wave

This was supposed to be Google's solution to Facebook, or so they thought.  The biggest problem that Wave faced was, well, everything about it.  No one knew how to take advantage of the thing beyond logging in, and it ran so horribly that it became almost worthless.  We tried it here on the beta and it lasted for oh, a week at best and we gave up.  Wave has now been formally killed off, although Google as said they plan to integrate parts of it into other services.


QIK

One thing that Android users want is a quality app for live video streaming and chat like FaceTime on the iPhone 4.  What many of us were stuck with what QIK.  All it offered us in return was performance including choppy framerates, grainy images and frequently dropped connections over 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi.  Thankfully, we have Skype coming out hopefully soon with their video chat update and a possible addition to Google Talk.

Windows Phone 7 Overview

Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft's comeback into the smartphone market.  Let's start with the first positive experience compared to the old WinMo 6 days......they tore it all apart and started from scratch.  I can't think of how much abuse Microsoft has taken over the years for the horrible product WinMo became as it got passed up by everyone else on the market.  Sure, it was good for a while, then again they were about the only real smartphone OS on the market.  PalmOS had already become severely obsolete, and RIM only catered to business users for years.


My, how things have changed.  


The UI carries a lot of similarities to the Zune UI, which I've had a liking to personally.  The main thing they did was make it easy to use, keep your attention, and make it modern.  This ain't the old Windows 98 desktop style of old.  After getting hands on with it for a short time, I have to admit, it's fun to use.  No longer do I have the urge to rip out my hair and try to throw the phone like a hail mary.

Live Tiles:
This to me seems like the Microsoft version of a widget for any of the phone functions.  The tiles go in rows of two down the screen, and can be single squares or a two spot rectangle.  These can be used for contact shortcuts, bookmarks, etc.  They keep high-rez images of the site or image, and update live.


Camera:
Microsoft added a few tricks that caught my attention, and were nice additions.  The camera function is always accessible through the shortcut key, even if locked, by holding down the shortcut button.  The photos still stay private if the handset is locked.  And to quickly access your photos from the camera app, simply swipe left to right.  Quick and convenient.


Touch Keyboard:
Finally.....FINALLY.....a Windows phone has a good touch keypad.  Any previous WinMo phones I owned I required a physical keypad because it was terrible.  Response is solid, and it doesn't have the fat finger issue with me which is definitely a win.


Hubs:
These are kind of locations like you get on the Xbox. WP7 comes with 6: People, Pictures, Music+Video, Marketplace, Office, and Games.  Each hub carries all related content.  For example, Games includes any saved games on the phone, invites, your Xbox Live gamer score, and a place to change your avatar.


Marketplace: 
Yes children, it finally has an app market.  This was always one of the biggest annoyances of WinMo was trying to find an app.  Occasionally you could run across a website here and there with a descent selection of apps.  The problem is they tended to be heavily scattered about, and lacking in update support.


Internet Explorer:
It's still far from perfect and loses in speed tests to Safari and the default Android browser, but it is a huge improvement from previous mobile versions of IE.  It's actually usable.


Xbox Live Integration:

• Avatars: Connect to your Xbox LIVE profile and Avatar, or create a new one if you don't already have an Avatar or Xbox LIVE profile; take your 3-D Avatar and props with you on the phone with full closet access.
• Friends: Bring your Xbox LIVE friends with you everywhere; compare Achievements, challenge rivals to your favorite game, and even see who's online and what they're doing on their consoles, PCs or phones.
• Game access: Easily view and launch your full game library from a single location; find, try and buy new games either in the Marketplace or Games hub.
• Achievements: Earn, view and track Achievements, view Xbox LIVE leaderboards and build your Gamerscore across Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7 - every time you play an Xbox LIVE title.
• Messaging: Communicate with all of your Xbox LIVE friends, any time you want, through Xbox LIVE messages.
• Multiplayer: Invite, connect and play against friends on other Windows Phone 7 phones or the PC with turn-based (asynchronous) multiplayer gaming.
• Spotlight: Access Xbox LIVE Spotlight feeds, including the latest game titles, breaking news from Xbox LIVE, game tips and tricks, and more.

The Missing Features:
copy and paste (coming in 2011)
multi-tasking (this is for non microsoft apps)
turn-by-turn navigation (might get it later, but no one does it like android)
microSD card swapping (uses the card as extended storage for the OS, not external)